ARTICLES ABOUT RED FORT BY DATE - PAGE 4

NEW DELHI: Around 10,000 security personnel from the Delhi Police and paramilitary forces will keep a hawk-eyed vigil at Red Fort and the area surrounding it during the Independence Day celebrations on Friday. A multi-layered security cover has been put in place along with a ground-to-air security apparatus to pre-empt any possible terror strikes in the city with special emphasis on the region around the venue. Narendra Modi will address people for the first time from the ramparts of the Red Fort after becoming the Prime Minister.

NEW DELHI: The much-awaited maiden Independence Day address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi could be, in some ways, a break from the past: he could use the occasion to lay down his plans for the future rather than dish out the rhetoric-ridden vision statement that one associates with the August 15 speeches. Modi-watchers also suspect that, given his penchant to break established norms, the PM could end Red Fort's monopoly as the venue for the I-Day addresses. This is nothing new for Modi though: as Gujarat chief minister, he had famously shifted the I-Day venue from Gandhinagar to obscure towns even as the opposition cried foul, accusing him of indulging in publicity stunts.

NEW DELHI: Delhiites will get a free ride on all Delhi Transport Corporation buses from 6 AM to 10 AM across the national capital on this Independence Day. Also, for the first time, around 10,000 seats will be available for general public at the historic Red Fort where they can witness Prime Minister Narendra Modi deliver his maiden Independence Day address to the nation. The members of the public will be seated to the right of the Red Fort in the public enclosure, next to around the same number of schoolchildren clad in colours of the tricolour.

NEW DELHI: In a first, around 10,000 members of the general public will be present at the historic Red Fort to witness Prime Minister Narendra Modi deliver his maiden Independence Day address to the nation. And, in more joy for the public, Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) will provide a free ride to all commuters in all its buses in the national capital between 6 A.M. and 10 A.M. on August 15 that they may come from any nook and corner of the city to be a part of Independence Day celebrations.

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha witnessed ruckus today after a Shiv Sena member remarked that saffron flag would be hoisted atop the Red Fort leading to a brief adjournment. Opposition members protested when Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav (SS) said they would unfurl saffron flag on the Red Fort in Delhi. Jadhav was speaking on the Motion of Thanks on the President's address to Parliament. Opposing the remark, members from Congress, Trinamool Congress and Left parties urged the Speaker to remove it from the records.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court stayed the execution of death row convict Yakub Abdul Razak Memon , a key conspirator with Dawood Ibrahim in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case . A bench comprising justices J S Khehar and C Nagappan issued notice to the Maharashtra government and others on the plea of Memon and said that in the meantime "execution proceedings will remain stayed". The court also referred to a Constitution Bench a plea of Memon that review petitions in death penalty cases should not be heard by the apex court in chamber proceedings and be decided in open court.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today stayed the execution of death sentence of Lashkar-e-Taiba ( LeT ) terrorist Mohd Arif alias Ashfaq in the 2000 Red Fort attack case in which three people, including two Army jawans, were killed. A bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha also issued notice to the Centre on Arif's plea seeking its direction for his release on the ground that he has already spent over 13 years behind bars and he should not be hanged after such a long period.

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma has said it was the collective failure of the government in not communicating and rebutting the "false" allegations made against it. "I am a minister, I share the collective responsibility. It was the duty of each of us to step out and rebut what was being falsely (said about us). May be we should have countered this.... Assault on the government and Congress was based on pack of untruth and lies," Sharma told a news agency. He was responding to criticism of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by Congress leader P C Chacko who had said Singh had failed to interact with media on various issues.

NEW DELHI: BJP's Delhi unit president Harsh Vardhan today filed his nomination papers from Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency, and will take on Union Minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal . "I'm very happy to contest elections from the locality where I have done my pre-medical schooling. My childhood friends and relatives also reside here. I'm confident of winning from Chandni Chowk," Vardhan said after filing his papers. The Delhi BJP chief said if elected he would develop the area which is a "holy place " as Delhi Assembly, historical Red Fort, Jama Masjid are located here, ensuring that he would treat all the problems plaguing the people of Chandni Chowk "like a doctor".

MAINPURI: There is neither a wave in favour of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi nor an adverse impact of Muzaffarnagar riots discernible in Mainpuri to keep the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav from sailing through his constituency in the upcoming LS elections. Opposition leaders rue that caste equations are too decisive a factor in the Yadav stronghold. Yadavs account for about 35 per cent of the total 12.13 lakh voters while the rest include Shakya, Thakurs, Brahmins, Scheduled Castes and Muslim communities.